Martha Minow

Martha Minow
Minow speaking at the 2010 Commencement for Harvard Law School
12th Dean of Harvard Law School
Incumbent
Assumed office July 1, 2009
Preceded by	Elena Kagan
Personal details
Born	(1954-12-06) December 6, 1954 Highland Park, Illinois
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	Joseph William Singer
Alma mater	University of Michigan (A.B.) Harvard University (M.A.) Yale Law School (J.D.)
Occupation	Professor Lawyer Administrator
Website	Martha Minow

Martha Louise Minow (born December 6, 1954)^[1][2][3] is the Morgan and Helen Chu Professor of Law and the Dean of Harvard Law School.^[4] She has taught at Harvard Law School since 1981, where her courses have included civil procedure, constitutional law, family law, international criminal justice, jurisprudence, law and education, nonprofit organizations, and the public law workshop. An expert in human rights and advocacy for members of racial and religious minorities and for women, children, and persons with disabilities, she also writes and teaches about privatization, military justice, and ethnic and religious conflict.^[5] Minow was one of the candidates^[6] mentioned to replace U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens upon his retirement. This honor, however, went to Elena Kagan, Minow's predecessor as dean of Harvard Law School.^[7]

Biography

Minow is the daughter of former Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow, and his wife, Josephine (Baskin) Minow. After graduating from New Trier Township High School in 1972 and completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan in 1975, Minow received a master’s degree in education from Harvard (1976) and her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Yale Law School (1979),^[8] where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

After graduating from law school, Minow clerked for Judge David Bazelon of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court.^[9]

She joined the Harvard Law faculty as an assistant professor in 1981, was promoted to professor in 1986, was named the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of Law in 2003, and became the Jeremiah Smith Jr., Professor of Law in 2005. She became Dean of Harvard Law School July 1, 2009.^[10] She is also a lecturer in the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Works, honors, and recognition

She served on the Independent International Commission on Kosovo and helped to launch Imagine Co-existence, a program of the U.N .High Commissioner for Refugees, to promote peaceful development in post-conflict societies. Her five-year partnership with the federal Department of Education and the Center for Applied Special Technology worked to increase access to the curriculum for students with disabilities and resulted in both legislative initiatives and a voluntary national standard opening access to curricular materials for individuals with disabilities. She has worked on the Divided Cities initiative which is building an alliance of global cities dealing with ethnic, religious, or political divisions.^[11]

Her honors include: the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse, awarded by the College Historical Society of Trinity College, Dublin, in recognition of efforts to promote discourse and intellectualism on a world stage; the Sacks-Freund Teaching Award, awarded by the Harvard Law School graduating class of 2005; the Holocaust Center Award, 2006; and Honorary Doctorates from Northwestern University (Law), the Jewish Theological Seminary (Law), Dominican University (Humane Letters), Hebrew College (Humane Letters), McGill University (Law), the University of Toronto (Law), and Wheelock College (Education).^[12]

During the 2008 Presidential campaign, then-Senator Obama was asked why he had chosen a career of public service rather than corporate law. He responded, "When I was at Harvard Law School I had a teacher who changed my life -- Martha Minow."^[13] In August 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Dean Minow to the board of the Legal Services Corporation, a bi-partisan, government-sponsored organization that provides civil legal assistance to low-income Americans. The U.S. Senate confirmed her appointment on March 19, 2010 and she now serves as Vice-Chair and co-chair of its Pro Bono Task Force.^[14]

She is a former member of the board of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the Iranian Human Rights Documentation Center, and former chair of the Scholar’s Board of Facing History and Ourselves. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences since 1992, Minow has also been a senior fellow of Harvard’s Society of Fellows, a member of Harvard University Press Board of Syndics, a senior fellow and twice acting director of what is now Harvard’s Safra Foundation Center on Ethics, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the American Philosophical Society. She has delivered more than 70 named or endowed lectures and key-note addresses.^[15]

She co-chaired the Law School’s curricular reform committee from 2003 to 2006, an effort that led to significant innovation in the first-year curriculum as well as new programs of study for second- and third-year J.D. students.^[16]

Selected works

• "In Brown’s Wake: Legacies of America’s Constitutional Landmark" (Oxford University Press 2010)
• "Government by Contract: Outsourcing and American Democracy" (Jody Freeman & Martha L. Minow eds., Harvard University Press 2009)
• "Just Schools: Pursuing Equality in Societies of Difference" (Martha Minow, Richard A. Shweder, and Hazel Rose Markus, Editors; Russell Sage Foundation 2008)
• "Living Up to Rules: Holding Soldiers Responsible for Abusive Conduct and the Dilemma of the Superior Orders Defence," 52 McGill Law Journal 1 (2007)
• "Tolerance in an Age of Terror," 16 University of Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal 453 (2007)
• "Should Religious Groups Ever Be Exempt From Civil Rights Laws?" 48 Boston College Law Review 781 (2007)
• "Outsourcing Power: How Privatizing Military Efforts Challenges Accountability, Professionalism, and Democracy," 46 Boston College Law Review 989 (2005)
• Partners, Not Rivals: Privatization and the Public Good (2002)
• Engaging Cultural Differences (ed. with Richard Shweder and Hazel Markus, 2002)
• Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History After Genocide and Mass Violence (1998)
• Not Only For Myself: Identity, Politics, and Law (1997)
• Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion, and American Law (1990)
• "Law Turning Outward" Telos 73 (Fall 1987). New York: Telos Press

References

1. ↑ Marquis Who's Who on the Web
2. ↑ Harvard Law School
3. ↑ "Candidates to replace Justice John Paul Stevens". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-08-06. 
4. ↑ Dean Martha Minow: Biography
5. ↑ http://www.law.harvard.edu/about/dean/dean-bio.html>
6. ↑ "Washingtonpost.Com". The Washington Post. 
7. ↑ "Names added to Supreme Court short list". CNN. April 12, 2010. 
8. ↑ Martha L. Minow
9. ↑ Martha Minow Named New Dean of Harvard Law School « Above the Law: A Legal Web Site – News, Commentary, and Opinions on Law Firms, Lawyers, Law School, Law Suits, Judges and C...
10. ↑ Martha Minow Appointed Dean of Harvard Law School | Harvard Magazine
11. ↑ http://www.law.harvard.edu/about/dean/dean-bio.html>
12. ↑ http://www.law.harvard.edu/about/dean/dean-bio.html>
13. ↑ Samuel Gordon, "Obama and the Jews: An Inside Perspective", Shalom Hartman Institute (November 23, 2008)
14. ↑ "Obama taps Martha Minow, John G. Levi for Legal Service Corporation Board". Chicago Sun-Times. 
15. ↑ http://www.law.harvard.edu/about/dean/dean-bio.html>
16. ↑ http://www.law.harvard.edu/about/dean/dean-bio.html>

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Martha Minow.

• Martha Minow faculty page at Harvard Law School
• Martha Minow named dean of Harvard Law School
• Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics